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Tar Heels' Ginyard out indefinitely
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Published: January 13, 2009
Struggling North Carolina will have to find out how to win an ACC game knowing that Marcus Ginyard won't be back any time soon to help.
Coach Roy Williams said yesterday that Ginyard, a 6-5 senior, will be withheld indefinitely from all basketball activity to give his left foot more time to recover from October surgery.
"Right now what we've decided is to shut him down with basketball practices and basketball games," Williams said. "We don't have a set date; a week, two weeks, whatever.
"We're going to try and get some more rehab on that foot to see if we can get more of his explosiveness back, more of his quickness back, and maybe get rid of some of that pain."
Ginyard will likely not be available on Thursday when UNC will play at Virginia. He was not in uniform on Sunday but sat on the bench in street clothes in a 92-89 loss at Wake Forest that dropped UNC's conference record to 0-2.
Ginyard is having trouble coming back from surgery he had on Oct. 8 to repair a stress fracture. He returned to game action on Dec. 28 and has played in three games, all as a reserve.
Williams said that UNC is missing a key player with Ginyard out, but he is hopeful that Ginyard can return later this season and make the team stronger for the finish of the regular season and for tournament play.
"He gives us our best defensive player," Williams said. "He gives us a guy who's going to take a charge, who's going to get an offensive rebound, who's going to get a key steal, who can bother people with what he's doing as a total basketball player.
"Needless to say, we could use that right now."
Williams said that UNC doesn't have a player who can fill Ginyard's role in doing little things and dirty work to help the team.
"Everybody could, but that's just not their personality," Williams said. "It's not their niche. Maybe Will Graves (could take the role).
"Yesterday he came in and took a charge for us. He's doing a better job than he has in the past on the offensive backboards. We'll see."
■ Bill Cole can be reached at bcole@wsjournal.com.
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